Genealogy is a beloved hobby of mine. I like working the puzzles of connecting my ancestors and sometimes if I come upon a gravesite on find a grave with no manager and very little or no info I will try to find their people too. I have recently started transferring those not in my lineage to others who send edits as I figure they have an interest in finding their connections also. I hope to be a good neighbor and don't do this just to collect gravesites. I want all these families to be connected.

"They say no one truly dies until their name is spoken for the last time." — Terry Pratchett

A CALLING:

What calls us to find the ancestors? It goes beyond a simple curiosity. We are taken over, compelled, as if possessed by something bigger than us that is begging to be revealed. There is one of us in most every family, called to be the scribe. I am but one of the many in the long line of storytellers of our clan. Like others I am called to gather and assemble the ancestors-to breathe life back into them as far back as we can reach. We take what we find and chronicle the facts of their existence, remembering their names and who they were and what they did. They are the sum of who we are, for without them, we would not exist. We greet those who came before us, restoring their place in the familial line. We scribe their stories and their histories. We search for them in public libraries, county records, and weed-filled or well-kept cemeteries. We comb through yellowed newspapers, family archives, and lovely old letters and photo albums. We find them! And in finding them—we find ourselves.

Catherine (Clemens) Sevenau, Sep 2009